Dangerous Inheritance by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online Page A

Government has brought in laws which virtually make the Tamils a subject race. So you see it is not only the rich who have reason to feel that Mr. Bandaranaike is not giving them a fair deal.’
    De Richleau nodded his white head. ‘I read something in
The Times
last week about Bandaranaike having abrogated a pact that he had made with the Tamil leader, and that it was likely to lead to serious trouble.’
    â€˜You are right, sir.’ Rajapakse gave a sudden grin. ‘And it may prove, as you might say, “the last straw on the Tamil’s back”.’
    Everyone laughed at his sally, then the conversation turned to other subjects. When Marie Lou stood up to leave the table, before Fleur made to follow her mother she looked across at Rajapakse and said:
    â€˜Mr. Van Ryn and I are going down to dance at a hotel in the town. Would you care to come with us?’
    He smiled and bowed. ‘Your suggestion is a most kind one, Miss Eaton. I should greatly enjoy that.’
    A quarter of an hour later, when Truss had brought round the car, he put Rajapakse into the back seat, then hurried back into the front porch to waylay Fleur. When she came out he glowered at her and said in a low, angry voice:
    â€˜What, in God’s name, possessed you to ask this fellow to come with us?’
    She looked surprised. ‘Why shouldn’t I have? He’s much more our generation than theirs. It would have been a shabby trick to condemn him to spend a dull evening with our elders. And, after all, we get plenty of time together on our own.’
    â€˜It’s not that. He may ask you to dance with him.’
    â€˜Well; what if he does?’
    â€˜But damn it, Fleur,’ Truss protested hotly, ‘you can’t dance with a coloured man!’

4

The in the Woodpile
    â€˜So I can’t dance with a coloured man,’ Fleur repeated sarcastically. ‘And why not, I’d like to know?’
    â€˜You ought to,’ Truss snapped back. ‘For a white woman to allow a coloured man to lay his hands on her is to demean herself.’
    â€˜Demean herself, my foot! Where have you come from; out of a cave in the woods?’
    â€˜No. I was brought up in the Southern States where we still know how to behave like gentlefolk.’
    â€˜ “The land of the bollweevil, where the laws are mediaeval, and corn grows out of one’s ears”,’ Fleur quoted Tom Lehrer’s satirical song with an angry laugh. ‘Be your age, Truss! This sort of nonsense went out before we were born.’
    â€˜Not with us, it didn’t. And I’ll not stand for seeing you make an exhibition of yourself in front of all those people down in the Corfu Palace.’
    Fleur’s firm chin stuck out. ‘All right! Do the other thing. Stay here. I’ll drive him down myself. He’s waiting out there. We can’t stay here arguing.’ Pushing past Truss, she made for the car.
    For a moment Truss hesitated, then he followed her and they got into the car together.
    The evening was anything but a success, and it was due only to Douglas Rajapakse that it did not become catastrophic. He sensed that the other two were lovers and had had a quarrel; although, as he was used to mixing in Ceylon on equal termswith Europeans, it never entered his dark, handsome head that it was on account of his own presence. Truss’s ill-concealed rudeness he took to be a not unusual manifestation of American self-assertiveness, and he made allowances for him. Fleur danced with them alternately, and in the intervals while Truss behaved like a surly bear, Rajapakse kept up a flow of amiable talk on trivialities which eased the tension. Just before they were about to go he left them for a few minutes and when Truss asked for the bill he was told that the Sinhalese had already paid it. To his frowning protest, Rajapakse replied with a smile.
    â€˜My privilege. Is it not customary at American universities